Company
FeedChocolate shampoo? Probably not
Omotola Akerele
Mar 11th 2010
Last week's speculation that food giant Nestle was preparing to fork out $20 billion to buy out L'Oriel's biggest shareholder Lilian Bettencourt, seems to have been overwritten today after Bettencourt's family pledged their support for the company.Dubbed as Europe's richest woman, Bettencourt is set to leave her 31% stake in Paris-based L'Oreal to her daughter despite claims of a family feud.
Embattled Omega warns on premiums
Chris Wheal
Mar 11th 2010
Filed under: Company, Insurance
Omega - the Lloyd's insurer under attack by major shareholder Invesco Perpeptual - announced pre-tax profits up 67% to $47.1m (2008: $28.2m), based on gross written premiums of $265.8m ($265.4m) this morning.The pre-tax result included a profit of $36.5m (loss of $3.0m) from underwriting activities, $15.9m ($23.5m) from managing agency activities and $16.3m ($21.8m) from investment income. Profit for the year was $43.6m ($22.2m). Its combined ratio was 81.4% (101.4%). It won't be enough to stop Invesco.
More Chile quake insurer estimates
Chris Wheal
Mar 10th 2010
Filed under: Company, Insurance
More insurers have estimated their losses from the Chile earthquake and the recent windstorm in France and Spain called Xynthia. Swiss Re estimates its loss from the Chile quake to be $500m from a total insurance loss of $4bn to $7bn. Its losses from Xynthia will be approximately $100m,it said.Reinsurer Transatlantic Holdings, which is buying millions of its own shares back from an AIG subsidiary, expects to incur between $60m and $90m, net of tax, from the Chile earthquake and European windstorm Xynthia. And PartnerRe has reported too.
Fortis underwriting nosedives
Chris Wheal
Mar 10th 2010
Filed under: Company, Insurance
Fortis UK, which is changing its name to Ageas, announced this morning that its insurance profits fell to £29m from £76m last year and its combined ratio leapt from an excellent 92.2% in 2008 to a dangerously-close-to-loss-making 98.9%.Add to this the fact that the insurer saw record gross written premiums up 6% to £805m from £760m and you have a classic case of an insurer chasing new business by underpricing.
Pick of the early market news
Adrian Holliday
Mar 10th 2010
Filed under: Company, Economy, Markets
Oil players have had a volatile year – and explorer Tullow Oil hasn't managed to escape the difficult trading environment. The FTSE-100 oil player has endured a massive profits whack – down 93% on last year. Tullow Oil's full year results reveal that pre-tax profits shrank to just £20m compared to almost £300m in 2008. Earnings per share, likewise, saw a stunning decline, from 30.9p to just 1.9p.
MPs slam venture frameworks
Omotola Akerele
Mar 9th 2010
Filed under: Company, Small Business, Investing, News
Let's face it, the government's reputation for investing in small businesses has never been great. Today a group of MPs are taking the matter seriously and pointing fingers at the UK government's management of its venture capital funding plans for those small businesses with prospects for growth.
Bupa results up on corporate growth
Chris Wheal
Mar 9th 2010
Filed under: Company, Financial Crisis, Insurance
Private medical insurance (PMI) and healthcare provider Bupa announced revenues up 17% to £6.94bn, with organic growth of 5%, favourable foreign exchange movements of 7% and the full year effect of recent acquisitions of 5%.It said its surplus before tax was up 117% to £416.5m and its underlying surplus before tax was up 4% to £428.2m. For a recession year those are impressive figures. Expectations would be that PMI sales would fall but Bupa signed up foreign and business customers.
Pick of the early market news
Adrian Holliday
Mar 9th 2010
Filed under: Company, Markets, News
Troubled Eurotunnel Group has been in the news for all the wrong reasons. It endured a firestorm of criticism recently after leaving tens of thousands of passengers stranded at Christmas. The train operator has now announced net profits of just €1.4m compared to €44m in 2008 - a huge tumble. "The results for the year 2009 are proof of Eurotunnel's resilience in the face of difficulties," says Jacques Gounon, boss of the Eurotunnel Group.
E.ON cut prices
Omotola Akerele
Mar 8th 2010
Filed under: Company, News , Energy
E.ON have followed close behind British Gas and cut their prices by 6% for domestic customers. The energy supplier says households will save an average of £42 per year with the move.
The price drop, which is set to come into effect on March 31st, will benefit around 1.9 million residential customers with E.ON claiming that they will be £26 a year better off than those who are with British Gas.
Women still denied senior work roles
Adrian Holliday
Mar 8th 2010
Filed under: Company, Debt, Investing, News
Women are not making the grade in senior business roles. Still. That's the conclusion of the World Economic Forum (WEF) which says the world's top companies are still failing to educate, train and reward women higher up the company food chain.WEF says India has the lowest amount of female employees at high-ranking positions. The US, on the other hand, scored well with the highest percentage of female employees (52%) occupying high-level positions.
Chaucer's new profit, FD and home
Chris Wheal
Mar 8th 2010
Filed under: Company, Insurance
Lloyd's insurer Chaucer announced profit before tax and foreign exchange on non-monetary items of £75.3m after making a loss last year of £59.5m. Its pre-tax profit was up too, to £42.0m from a loss of £26.2m. Gross written premiums were up 15.3% to £795.6m (£689.9m), up 5.4% without currency.
Underwriting profit was £45.8m before the impact of foreign exchange on non-monetary items, up from £33.0m, and its combined ratio fell from 94% to 93%. New boss Bob Stuchbery (pictured) must be pleased.
£3m "golden hello" for Unilever CFO
Adrian Holliday
Mar 7th 2010
Filed under: Company, Banking , Manufacturing
How pleasant it is to say hello when your name is Jean-Marc Huët. The new chief financial officer of Unilever received, it is now revealed, a "golden hello" worth more than £3m in February.The deal is made up of cash and shares – none of which is performance related. Huët's own salary will be £680,000 with the potential to earn up to £1m a year.
Serious play: Lego builds £1.4bn in sales
Adrian Holliday
Mar 5th 2010
Filed under: Company, Retail, Creative industries, Leisure & hospitality
Brick by brick, Lego has become the UK's third biggest toy-maker. Last year Lego built up its UK market share to 4.6%. Lego also managed to build up its global market share too to 4.8%.It's an especially impressive achievement in a very tough sales market. Just look at the figures globally: revenues soared to nearly £1.4bn from £1.01bn the previous year.
Unions prepare to bite back at Kraft
Adrian Holliday
Mar 5th 2010
Filed under: Company, Debt, Economy, Job Focus
We want above-inflation pay rises. We want promises you won't cut pay for extra hours or other benefits. That's the blunt message Cadbury workers are telling new owner, Kraft. But will they listen? Kraft handed over £11.4bn for the British chocolate maker. It did this by borrowing more than £7bn - which means it's under pressure to keep costs to a minimum.
NUJ questions Trinity Mirror spin
Martin Cloake
Mar 4th 2010
Filed under: Company, News , Media, Creative industries
Like any company, Trinity Mirror attempted to put a positive spin on its financial results, which were announced this morning and reported on this site.But the National Union of Journalists has questioned the picture painted by the statement, and says worries about the future remain.
Economy doing worse than suspected?
Coutts AIG bond row may end in court
